[evmaki]

> My Echo, that I use solely to voice activating lights and switches, is now an ad machine

I've been wondering if it is even possible for a publicly-traded company to deliver a voice assistant product without these incentives involved. I have to imagine the UX of these devices would be much different if they were built by a private company without the same market pressures. It would need to be self-contained and local, so that the infrastructure burden (e.g., data and AI in the cloud) wouldn't create a need for subscription service or data collection revenue to cover the cost.

[vablings]

This is why devices that are basically loss leaders should always be illegal. The end value product is an update that will come later down the line that screws everything up.

For those considering smart home devices, please just buy a home assistant device. It is easy for the non-technical and also not that much more expensive

[init2null]

Matter/Thread is reasonably good with Apple Home. The more adventurous can also dual-join it to Home Assistant running on the same Thread network. It surprisingly just works, though the dual-controller setup still involves a little initial suffering.

[vablings]

I am using Matter/Thread with Home Assistant and the new ZBT-2. No Apple Home integration! Although I will say that homekit with the Home Assistant bridge is very good! Kudos to Apple

[nozzlegear]

> I've been wondering if it is even possible for a publicly-traded company to deliver a voice assistant product without these incentives involved. I have to imagine the UX of these devices would be much different if they were built by a private company without the same market pressures.

Apple's HomePods have never had ads and don't require a subscription/data collection to control home devices.

[utdoctor]

But you have to interface with the software delight known as Siri

[nozzlegear]

True! I'm one of the lucky ones that Siri just understands every time, so I have no complaints. My wife's Siri usage is hit or miss though.